Before he went to sleep I told Salah – I will cook – sliced beef with shi take mushrooms and dried champignons. Oh he was drooling. Next day I had waited until 16:00 hrs and had not eaten anything – just tasted – only eaten fruit the whole day. He had eaten in the bakery with his employees... Sure I understood – he was forced to – they told him between the lines: our food is never good enough for you. So he was obliged to. Actually I call this compel someone to do sth. Was not really the „fine“ art of living a „free life“. Well arriving at home he smelt that incredible delicious aroma of the cooking and he was very sorry and admitted to have forgotten. N/P – I could always warm it up – it was not like the never-ending story of my parents i.e. when my mom was cooking Roesti (for those who wish to know abt Roesti – here the link to the recipe:
http://teamsugar.com/group/1709694/recipes/1709704 )
and dad was always late – all other dishes were fine – just that one always caused the same and the same again …
One of these days – someone rang the doorbell and Mufida knocked on our door – Salah was very secretive and acted strange then asked me out: There it was: the bed for Athana – 140 cm on 60 cm - how much it cost? About 20 $ (including transport) - not more – it was prim wood, tapered staffs. On top you found a ball which was also very beautiful – awesome timber work – dark wood and shimmering i loved that bed immediately. Sorry no pic available. That bed surely was not fm Libya. He had found it in a shop – they had to adjust and replace the wood inside – otherwise she would have fallen through – i.e. on the floor. The carpenter could have sold it twice – yet Salah was intelligent enough and paid in advance.
Finally we got a bed for Athana – finally. Actually I nearly cried, because the bed was so cute and I was so moved. Yet that is normal at the end of pregnancy…
I knew then that he never really had forgotten abt it – he just had played a game with me…
Salah had started to clear the storage room. Not finished but started… Unfortunately he had put all my books in one corner and put any other stuff in front of them. So I had no more access to them. Since I was fed up of movies – (DVDs & Laserdiscs), I went back reading. I had to tell him very nicely to put them back. I had such a hunger for books – I was reading all Marion Zimmer-Bradley books again – in a short time 10 of them. She is actually (till today) my favourite writer – all books which were available in German I had been buying. I even had access on a total “new” one to me at least – 700 pages in 3 days… Of course: heartburn and not being able to sleep… The usual pregnancy life…
It was good to read abt Darkover. Also on that planet men were not allowed to stare at women and vice versa. The only difference to a Muslim country was: they did not wear a hishab (= veil) yet – the neck had to be covered in Darkover so I felt pretty relieved. I had changed significantly: I did not even look at men anymore.
Salah had introduced me to the Prime-Minister fm Libya. We met him in a super market. All knew Salah, because they also knew Salah’s dad. Since his dad had been working in the previous government – all knew the family…
My heartburn had not really improved, I only slept around 3 – 5 hrs. I always got up when Salah went to the bakery shop. Sometimes I went back to sleep yet more often I had to do my chores – well till today – chores do not do themselves
Unfortunately it was torture to stand too long; my legs were swollen to the level – I felt like an elephant. I still took all with a huge portion of humour. I could have complained – yet what would I have gained with that?
Actually I had a better pregnancy than his sister Amal – poor Amal the last three months she was unable to sleep in her bed – could not lay down. She had to sleep while seated on a chair. Can you imagine? Anyway – normally when a birth was near – women totally relaxed and had others helping them. I did not wish for that – I still made all I could and all were surprised. Of course there is a story behind all that. My aunt – her husband was my dad’s half brother, was in the same situation as I was: she had swollen legs and so forth. Yet she was only lying in bed, doing nothing – her husband had to do all in addition – he worked and in the evening he even did the chores for her. I did never understand that. In the end she was so fat and had swollen legs like an elephant, as well. She looked terrible. That was my daunting example of letting go of oneself…
With all my enzymes and vitamins it was not so terrible – actually even so I had all these stupid things – I felt pretty good still; i.e. health wise. Well in Libya nutrition was not really an issue. Most had too much meat and/or dehydrated food. They cooked the veggies too long and therefore were not really eating “healthy”. It leads to gallstones, diabetes and other nice degenerated sicknesses. They did not even really know abt herbs. The herbs which helped in a broader case were fleya (camomile) and oregano; mostly.
The funniest thing was my daughter and her “wishes to eat” – I was not hungry many times. Yet Athana wanted certain food, for example corn flakes. I kept receiving pictures fm corn flakes – which became bigger and bigger as if sitting in a theatre and watching a screen – at the end the picture was so big that the stomach nearly went nuts and I was forced to go to the kitchen and had the flakes, madam asked for… So I actually watched commercials in my own home cinema – very clever, my little one! END OF LINE: Hello heartburn – goodbye sleep…